The Spirit of Competition
by Aiffe
Summary: Tahno's up to something. Korra's up for anything. And Mako's stuck in the middle. Mako/Tahno/Korra.


Mako's eyebrow was already starting to twitch by the time he'd made it across the apartment, down the hallway, and opened the door. The incessant buzzing stopped, and Tahno looked at him, momentarily surprised, then shrugged and held out a rose with a smug grin.

Mako rubbed his head. "This had better be an emergency."

"It could be," Tahno said. "A sexy emergency."

Mako tried to slam the door in his face, but Tahno caught it. "Wait. Is Korra here?"

He eyed Tahno's rose and hopeful smile with intense mistrust. "What do you want with her?"

"I want to thank her," Tahno said, the rose starting to droop in his hand. "I…. It just means a lot to me, what she did, and I never got the chance to…." For a moment there seemed to be a crack in Tahno's smug veneer, that flash of vulnerability in his eyes, the way his voice wavered. Mako remembered that Tahno had been one of the ones that had cried when Korra gave his bending back. His grip on the door softened, letting it swing open a little wider.

"She's not here right now. I can give her a message for you," Mako said. "And for future reference, it's considered very rude to lean on the doorbell."

Tahno looked bewildered at this information, as if he couldn't imagine anyone being unhappy to find him waiting on their doorstep. Must be nice to live in his world. "They say opportunity knocks, but temptation leans on the doorbell," he said silkily, running a hand over his hip.

Mako took the rose from him. "Is that the message you want me to give her?"

"No, wait," Tahno said. "I, uh…wanted to talk to you too, actually."

"Oh really."

"Don't look like that. You're much more handsome when you smile. You can keep the rose, by the way."

"I thought it was to show your gratitude to Korra?"

"Oh, I'm sure I can find other ways to show her how grateful I am," he said, and Mako wasn't quite sure if he was imagining the implications, or if that was just Tahno's voice making everything he said sound sleazy.

"Look," Mako said, "Korra doesn't want—"

"What don't I want?" Korra said, peering out into the hall, her hair tousled, wrapped in just a sheet.

"This," Mako said, standing aside and gesturing at Tahno with the rose.

"Korra," Tahno said, his face lighting up, that disarming bit of vulnerability back in his stance.

"Oh, hey, Tahno," Korra said. "How's the bending?"

"Amazing," Tahno said, stepping forward, and Mako had to let him through the door, because he'd look like an ass stopping him with Korra watching. Tahno glanced at him as he passed, the corner of his mouth twisted in a smirk. "Actually, that's why I'm here—I just needed to tell you how _grateful_ I am. You gave me my whole life back. You're incredible." He was looking at Korra almost worshipfully, and Korra was already getting that smug look.

"You could stand to tell me that a bit more, yes," Korra said, preening.

"I'll tell you as often as you like, in any way you could want. I owe you everything, Avatar."

"Laying it on a bit thick there, aren't you, Tahno?" Mako said.

Tahno turned to him, a look in his eye that he must have thought was sultry or something. "I can show you just how thick I lay it on."

"That…that doesn't even make sense," Mako said.

Tahno looked at him, with his bare chest and hastily thrown on pants, to Korra, who was holding the sheet over her breasts, and tapped his lip thoughtfully. "You were in the middle of something, weren't you?"

"With deductive reasoning like that, it's amazing the police haven't tapped your talents yet," Mako said caustically.

"I don't know, you could be starting a new fashion trend," Tahno said, and turning to Korra, added, "I think that's the most beautiful ensemble I've ever seen you in."

Korra actually blushed a bit, apparently missing the backhandedness to that compliment that Mako felt sure was there.

"What I said, about showing my gratitude," Tahno said, "I really meant it." He toyed with the fastenings of his shirt. "_Really_ meant it. I don't think you have any idea just _how_ grateful I am. How much I want to see you happy. Both of you," he said, turning to Mako hopefully. "You took this city back from Amon, when I wasn't able to fight. And you," he said, turning back to Korra, "you've given me so much happiness. Don't you think you deserve a reward? I'll do _anything_ for you," he finished breathily.

"If you've really had a change of heart, you could always give us the winnings from that match you cheated in," Mako said dryly.

"I would, but I spent it all," Tahno said, a bit of a smile on his face as if trying to cover up something else.

"A hundred thousand yuans? On what?"

"Healers' fees," he said, clearly making an effort to keep his tone light. "Pretty stupid, huh? The only person who could actually fix me went and did it for free, and I had nothing left to repay her with." He unhooked the first fastening on his shirt. "This is all I have left to give you."

"Oh, Tahno," Korra said, and she sounded genuinely sympathetic. Mako felt a swell of affection for her—she really did have a good heart. She could even manage to find compassion for this twisted piece of work in front of them. "You don't _have to_, you know," she said.

_Damn right,_ Mako thought, lifting his chin a bit.

"But I want to," Tahno said. "I would be crushed, actually, if you refused the only gift I have to give."

"You're sure it's not too much trouble?" Korra said. "I mean, I gave you your bending back because I wanted you to have it, but if you _really_ wanted…."

_What._

_She's not actually _considering_ his offer, is she?_

Mako met Korra's eyes, trying to read her, and was horrified at what he found. She had that game look on her face, like she did whenever she'd just hit upon an idea she thought was terribly good, or was rising to some challenge. "What do you think, Mako?" she asked.

"Well, I, uh." _Think all this is terrible and you should airbend his ass out the door so we can get back to what we were doing._

"You're not _jealous,_ are you?" Korra pressed.

Suddenly, it all made horrible, horrible sense. _This is revenge for that whole thing with Asami._

"Of course not," Mako lied. "But this is Tahno. I don't want us getting some kind of…social disease."

"I brought condoms," Tahno said cheerfully.

"Oh, well, _then_ it's all right," Mako said, with a sarcasm that was clearly lost on both of them, since Korra seemed to take this as permission to let Tahno in, and Tahno seemed to take it as permission to accept.

"Well, don't just stand there," Tahno said. "You wouldn't want to get left out." He shrugged his shirt off and let it fall to the ground.

Mako stepped back into the apartment, and closed the door. Surely Korra wasn't actually intending on going through with this. She'd just rile him up a little, teach him a lesson about how jealousy felt, and send Tahno on his way.

_Right?_

But Korra was looking at them both the way she tended to look at platters full of meat. "I can't believe we're really going to do this," she said, full of nervous excitement.

"Actually, Korra," Mako started, and Korra looked at him, disappointment threatening to fall over her features.

_She's really into this,_ he realized with a shock. _If I say no, she'll think I'm boring and jealous. Ugh, what is wrong with me? I get these amazing girls, but I always seem to screw it up._

"Just making sure you were completely okay with this," he said, forcing a smile. "If Tahno's pressuring you into anything…."

But no such luck. "Nah, I just think it'd be fun," Korra said. "I never got to do anything like this at the compound."

_Of course. _Repressed girls were always the freakiest in bed. He should have seen _that_ coming.

Korra kissed him, then moved to Tahno and started kissing him instead. Mako hung back, watching them, the jealousy simmering just under his skin. He _had_ to get those two apart, but if he just started making out with Korra, he'd look insecure, and besides, Korra had already had him lots of times. She wanted to try the new thing, and he'd be the joykill.

Well. There was another way around that.

He ran his hand along Tahno's shoulder, leaning in close. Tahno broke off his kiss with Korra, and leaned back towards Mako's ear. "Finally getting that stick out of your ass?" Tahno said. "Maybe it'll make room for something more fun in there."

Mako kissed Tahno with sudden force, their teeth clicking together like Pai Sho tiles. He didn't know if it was more to shut him up or to keep Tahno's lips off Korra, but either way he was kissing him, and it didn't take long for that to take on a life of its own.

Tahno pleasantly surprised him by not being as selfish and overrated at kissing as he was at everything else. He met Mako's force with zeal, but knew when to tease and knew when to surrender. _It's no wonder he's better at this than at pro-bending_, Mako thought. _He probably _sleeps_ with the refs._

They made their way back to the bedroom, and Korra's sheet was lost somewhere along the way. While he was busy with Tahno's lips, Korra was making an effort to get Tahno's pants off. _Unacceptable_.

Mako pushed Tahno down roughly on the bed, and Tahno sat up on his knees, mouth slightly open, his hair mussed from their hands running through it. Mako undid his own belt, letting his cock jut out. "Ready to show me some of that gratitude, Wolfbat?"

Tahno looked up at him with a sly smile. "Of course," he said, leaning in to lick. After a bit of teasing, Tahno took him into his mouth, and Mako closed his eyes in pleasure. He couldn't blame the refs, at the moment. No wonder this guy got away with murder.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that Korra had gotten Tahno's pants rucked down around his thighs, and was stroking him while nibbling at his neck. Tahno moaned a bit from this attention, the vibrations travelling through Mako's cock, but did not slack at his work.

Mako wanted to feel angry about what Korra's hand was doing, but what Tahno was doing felt so good he couldn't entertain the idea of stopping long enough to find some other way to get between them. Maybe it was just that everything was tinged with pleasure at the moment, but he actually found the sight of Korra's hand pumping Tahno's dick turned him on even more.

And besides, it was hard to feel insecure about Tahno when he had his mouth full of cock. It was a good look for him, Mako thought, tangling his fingers in Tahno's hair.

His grip slacked as he neared his orgasm, and at the last moment Tahno pulled back, giving him a firm stroke with his hand, and Mako shot his load all over Tahno's face. Tahno looked up at him, thoroughly debauched, and licked at a bit that dripped on his lips.

Korra kissed Tahno, and licked up some of the come from Tahno's face. Mako lay back and watched them kiss, their tongues tangling, tasting each other, tasting _him_. That was…a lot hotter than anything involving Tahno had the right to be. He lay there drowsily, spent from his orgasm and enjoying the show.

Tahno bent the water from a cup by the bed, and making a glove out of it, put his hand to Korra's groin and started fingering her. He was clearly doing something more with the water than just coating his hand with it; Mako saw the surface ripple and shimmer, and realized Tahno was making it _vibrate_. Korra certainly seemed to like it. Her head was thrown back, and Mako saw the muscles of her thighs clench and shudder with excitement. Little groans of pleasure were choked out of her, seemingly involuntarily, and her hands grasped blindly at Tahno's shoulders, nails digging in and leaving scratches. Mako realized that she'd never gone quite _that_ wild for him.

But it wasn't like he needed waterbending to please her…right?

Korra came with a strangled cry, the likes of which he'd never quite heard from her. Tahno gave her a few moments to breathe, kissing her neck and breasts tenderly. Then he saw Tahno pull his pants off all the way and get a condom from the pocket, and he realized that Tahno had gotten him out of the way first deliberately, to have Korra all to himself.

_Dammit_, he thought, watching Tahno roll the condom on. _I should have sucked _him_ off instead!_

He would have liked to just grab Tahno and fuck him into the mattress, but his dick seemed to be done for the moment. Still, he had no intention of watching from the sidelines while that little eel-weasel fucked his girlfriend. Mako pulled himself up and started kissing Tahno again. This time Korra lay back and watched, tired, but evidently still aroused enough to play with herself.

Tahno sat up and pulled Mako into his lap, letting him face Korra while kissing his neck and shoulders and sucking at his earlobes, his cock rubbing up into Mako's asscrack. His fingers slipped into Mako's mouth, and Mako could taste Korra's juices on them. He licked them, and Tahno drew them out slicked with his saliva, and brought them down to Mako's ass. Tahno's deft, slippery fingers quickly found something inside him that made him writhe, and his cock gave a lazy throb, swelling slightly.

Tahno played with him until he'd started to rock back and forth on Tahno's fingers, all but begging for _more_. He pulled his fingers out, and Mako gasped, pressing his ass back against Tahno's cock.

"Well, aren't you just full of surprises," Tahno said, pushing just a little bit into him. "You must have done this before. I wouldn't have expected it of you."

"You must do this all the time," Mako said. "Completely what I expected of you."

Tahno wrapped his arms around Mako's waist, pulling Mako closer, and Mako let himself sink down onto him, Tahno's cock completely filling him. "You imply I'm a slut like it's a bad thing," Tahno said.

Mako let out a moan as Tahno thrust into him. "Yeah, well…you're a bad thing," he choked out.

Tahno laughed, and Mako thought he had rather an evil laugh. "I can tell you're enjoying yourself when your insults get sloppy."

His cock had risen to half-mast by now, and Korra crawled over to it and slipped it in her mouth. That was almost _too_ much, and if he hadn't just come a few minutes ago, he probably would have done so then and there. He rocked in Tahno's lap, and hardened quickly in Korra's eager mouth.

Korra pulled back and rolled a condom on him, and sat up to kiss him. Mako was pressed between their bodies, slick with sweat, and he felt Korra's cleft rub against the tip of his cock. She sank down on him, and he felt all four of their hands on him at once, touching his body greedily and touching each other, kissing each other over his shoulder and leaving wet, sloppy kisses all over him, and it all blurred together, one fantastic sensation, Tahno deep inside him and Korra wrapped around him, and he was making sounds he wasn't even hearing anymore.

But it was Tahno who seemed to be struggling on the brink, his breath coming hard and heavy in Mako's ear, shaking with the effort of holding himself back. His hands were on Mako's hips, trying to slow him, but Mako bore down with an almost fiendish enjoyment, and Tahno gasped and shuddered, and he felt Tahno's cock spasming inside him. But he didn't even get the chance to get up off him, because Korra was riding him hard now, and when she clenched around him, crying out, he spilled over again, with an orgasm so hard it seemed to sap the very marrow from his bones.

They collapsed in a sweaty heap, struggling for air. For a few minutes it was just that—the press of their bodies, the rise and fall of their chests. When he wasn't seeing stars anymore, Mako glanced at their faces, seeing a pair of very contented grins. Tahno in particular had a victorious look, like he'd just been handed a trophy for Excellence in Fucking or something.

When the afterglow had mostly faded, Tahno got up, turned the radio on and tuned the station. Shiro Shinobi's stalwart voice came through the speakers, just announcing a Fire Ferrets victory.

"Whoo!" Korra cheered.

"Go Bolin!" Mako said.

But Tahno's face started to drop, and he stared at them in shock.

"H-how," Tahno said.

"Bolin's been training his ass off with the new team," Mako said. "Good on him."

Tahno's eyes widened in distress. It was almost comical, really. "New…team?"

"Yeah, we quit pro-bending," Korra said. "I was busy with Avatar stuff, and Mako's got his new job with the police, so…."

Tahno threw the radio off the table and let it smash on the ground, almost wheezing with fury. "You mean I fucked you two for _nothing_?"

"Hey," Mako said. "You owe me thirty yuans for that radio."

"What do you mean, for _nothing_," Korra said. "What, you…you thought we were still on the team? I don't understand."

Tahno kicked at a table and ran his fingers through his hair. "Haven't you ever heard of distraction tactics?" He rolled his eyes. "We fuck, you have such a good time you forget about the match with the Rabaroos, you get disqualified from the finals, and I get to clean up with a much inferior team."

Korra frowned. "You told me you were done with cheating."

"Well, yes, that's the whole point. If you got disqualified, I wouldn't have to cheat! I never said I was done with _winning_."

"I don't think he understands the concept," Mako said.

"Ugh, I can't believe I didn't at least check that you were still on the team first," Tahno said, slumping back down on the bed.

"I can't believe you sucked me off to win a game," Mako said. "No, wait, actually, I can believe it."

Tahno sniffed. "I'm such a…I'm such a screw-up."

Korra sat up. "Tahno? Are you _crying_?"

"No," Tahno said, turning away from her.

"Tahno, it's okay," Korra said. She rubbed his back. "Come on, we all had a good time, right?"

"Yeah," Tahno said weakly. "But now…you must think I'm a loser."

"I wasn't sure you cared what I thought of you," Korra said.

"Of _course_ I do," Tahno said, turning back towards them. His eyeliner, already messy with sweat, was starting to run from tears too. "I may have been manipulating you to get you into bed, but nothing I said before was a lie. What you did was really _everything_ to me." He fell onto her shoulder, bawling. "How could you leave pro-bending? How could you leave _me_? What will I do with myself now?"

Korra shot Mako a desperate look, pleading for help, and Mako patted Tahno's shoulder awkwardly. "It's okay, champ," he said. "I'm sure you'll find lots of other teams to seduce and play underhanded tricks on."

"But it's not the _same_," Tahno wailed. "You were _my_ enemies. It's never going to be as good with anyone else as it was with you. My heart just wouldn't be in it." He threw himself back on the bed dramatically. "My plan was _perfect_. I spent _weeks_ picturing the looks on your faces when you realized I'd cost you the finals this year. And you weren't even _trying_? I…I can't believe you would do this to me." His body was racked with big, messy sobs.

Korra hugged him. "Shh, baby, it's gonna be okay," she said, stroking his hair. She gestured for Mako to join her, and heaving a weary sigh, Mako wrapped his arms around Tahno's shaking frame.

"Thanks, you guys," Tahno said, his voice slurred with snot. "I don't deserve rivals as good as you."

"Technically, we're not rivals anymore," Mako said, and Tahno erupted in fresh howls.

"Look what you've done," Korra scolded. "It's okay, Tahno. I'll _always_ have a special hate in my heart just for you."

Tahno stilled. "You're not just saying that?"

"I mean it. No one gets under my skin like you do."

"Yeah," Mako added. "I came close to wringing your neck several times today alone."

Tahno kissed Mako, then Korra. "Let's stay rivals then, even if you're out of pro-bending."

Mako shrugged. "Works for me."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Korra said.

Tahno relaxed in their arms, finally dozing off peacefully, and Mako kissed Korra over him. "I love you," he whispered to Korra.

"I love you too," Tahno murmured sleepily.


End file.
